Many types of queries are oriented to a particular geographic area. While some types of queries have no discernible geographic component (e.g., a search for “Javascript code to process web form”), many queries—when properly understood—are limited to a particular geographic area. For example, a query for “restaurant” is often asking “find a restaurant at a particular location.” When a query is interpreted as asking for geographically limited information, search engines typically assume that the location is the user's current location. Thus, the search engine may estimate the user's location from available information (e.g., the Internet Protocol (IP) address from which the query was sent). A user often has the option to override the implied location by using text to further limit the query by geography—e.g., “restaurant 98052” or “restaurant redmond wa” may be interpreted as asking for a restaurant in the city of Redmond, Wash. in the United States. (98052 is the postal code for Redmond, Wash.) Similarly, if no geographic limitation was inferred from the query itself, the user may supply a geographic limitation using the same type of syntax that is used to override the implied limitation—e.g., adding postal code or place name to the query.
While search engines have the ability to consider geographic constraints when choosing results for a query, the ability to specify the geographic boundaries of the query is generally limited by the ability to specify a recognized, nameable place. For example, one can ask for “restaurant Chicago”, or “population North America,” or “travel New York City”. But these ways of adding geography to a query are, for many uses, inadequate ways of specifying the geography to which the query relates.